Palace policeman ‘was at tea’

Press, 15 July 1982, Page 1

Palace policeman ‘was at tea’

NZPA-Reuter London An intruder who woke the Queen in her bedroom at Buckingham Palace got in because a policeman on duty outside had slipped off for a tea break, "The Times" said yesterday. Other British newspapers said that police at the Palace ignored an alarm triggered by the prowler in his breakin on Friday morning and then were slow to respond to a telephone call for help because they misunderstood the Queen’s calm, controlled tone. . -.A Royal chambermaid appeared after 10 minutes and led the man away after exclaiming, “Bloody hell. Ma’am, w’hat’s he doing in here?" The Queen was unharmed but the latest reports on the break-in have caused a full-scale row about the safety of the Royal Family. Some policemen have been transferred and security has been tightened. However, calls from politicians and the press-for the resignations of those responsible for the Queen’s safety have not been answered.

The “Daily Express,” which broke the intruder story on Monday, said yesterday that the man triggered an alarm, but a police Officer, simply switched it off. . “That alarm is always going off," the newspaper quoted him as saying. When the Queen tried to raise the alarm using her bedside telephone, speaking calmly because the man was sitting on her bed, the police did not realise the call was urgent, the “Daily Mail” said.

The “Express" said that the Queen was angered by what she.saw as an offhand response by the Government to the incident. The mass-circulation "Sun” said it was told by the intruder’s wife that her husband was "deeply in love” with the Queen. It also quoted her as saying he "whispered sweet nothings" into the Royal ear before she awoke to see blood dripping from his cut hand on to her bedclothes. The “Sun” said that the' intruder talked to his wife in Brixton Prison on Tuesday about what happened during what the-newspaper termed

“his astonishing 10-minute chat” with the Queen. The intruder’s wife was aged 33, a mother of six, and from Highbury, in north London, the "Sun" said. The “Sun" had earlier quoted the man's father ■as saying that his son had a drug problem, but that "he would not harm a hair of the Queen’s, head.” The man's family said that just before his last visit to the Palace he had twice cut his wrists, the “Sun" said. The Government has given few details of the incident but press reports said that the man sneaked into the Queen’s first-floor bedroom by climbing a drainpipe. The reports said that the two talked about the Queen’s family until help arrived. The man has not been officially named. A junior minister has said that the man alleged to have broken into the Palace on Friday was the same man who was charged on" Saturday with another break-in . there a month ago. The man charged for the earlier offence is Michael Fagan, unemployed, aged 30. * The prowler spent “just : over 10 minutes” ' talking with the Queen, the suspect’s lawyer said yesterday. Mr Maurice Nadeem said that Fagan had been to Buckingham Palace “twice — no more,” in spite of Press reports that he broke in up to 12 times. Asked ,in an Independent Television News interview if Fagan had explained why he did it, Mr Nadeem said, “Yes, he wished to see the Queen.” With Britain in an official flap over what one frontpage report termed a “national crisis,” Fagan’s mother said that she would write to the Queen to apologise.

“I’m not saying my son would have hurt her,” Ivy Fagan said in the “London Standard.” “But if the Queen had cried out and people burst in, what would have happened? "The way she handled it, to talk to him and -keep calm, was absolutely marvellous. Now I plan to write to her to apologise. It is not very much, given, what has happened, but what else can I do? I am deeply sorry.” Stringent new protection measures surrounded the Queen at Buckingham Palace yesterday. Details of a security shake-up showed that some police formerly •on guard duties had been moved to other jobs, dog patrols in the sprawling grounds had been increased, trip wires were introduced near the Palace entrances, and.all visitors were being put under closer scrutiny. -